Interesting discussion by Kenan Malik of Pandaemonium on the “how’s” of creating a successful multicultural society.

An excerpt: “The starting point of multicultural policy is the acceptance of societies as diverse. Yet, on the multicultural map, that diversity seems magically to vanish at the edges of minority communities. Multiculturalists tend to treat minority communities as if each was a distinct, singular, homogeneous, authentic whole, each composed of people all speaking with a single voice, each defined primarily by a singular view of culture and faith. In so doing, multiculturalists all too often ignore conflicts within those communities. And they take the most conservative, reactionary figures as the authentic voices of those communities, precisely because they are reactionary and therefore must be authentic.”

What do you think? As a Muslim of a particular ethnic heritage, are you put into a “box” that’s distinct, singular and homogenous?

Or, as Malik writes, “If we want the pleasures of pluralism, we have to accept the pain of being offended.”